Natural History (13.8 billion years BC – 3.3 million BC)

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Victoriawiley
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Re: Natural History (13.8 billion years BC – 3.3 million BC)

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wjfox wrote: Tue Oct 04, 2022 6:50 pm Asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs also triggered a global tsunami

Published 1:59 PM EDT, Tue October 4, 2022

When a city-size asteroid slammed into Earth 66 million years ago, it wiped out the dinosaurs – and sent a monster tsunami rippling around the planet, according to new research.

[...]

It’s the first global simulation of the tsunami caused by the Chicxulub impact to be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, according to the authors.

The tsunami was powerful enough to create towering waves more than a mile high and scour the ocean floor thousands of miles away from where the asteroid hit, according to the study. It effectively wiped away the sediment record of what happened before the event, as well as during it.

“This tsunami was strong enough to disturb and erode sediments in ocean basins halfway around the globe, leaving either a gap in the sedimentary records or a jumble of older sediments,” said lead author Molly Range, who began working on the study as an undergraduate student and completed it for her master’s thesis at the University of Michigan.

Researchers estimate that the tsunami was up to 30,000 times more energetic than the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, one of the largest on record, that killed more than 230,000 people. The energy of the asteroid impact was at least 100,000 times larger than the Tonga volcanic eruption earlier this year.

Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/04/worl ... index.html


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caltrek
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Re: Natural History (13.8 billion years BC – 3.3 million BC)

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Artificial Intelligence Indicates Dinosaur Footprints Belonged to a Predator
by Jens N. Lallensack, Anthony Romilio and Peter L. Falkingham
November 9, 2022

Introduction:
(The Royal Society) Fossil tracks are important palaeobiological data sources. The quantitative analysis of their shape, however, has been hampered by their high variability and lack of discrete margins and landmarks. We here present the first approach using deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) to study fossil tracks, overcoming the limitations of previous statistical approaches. We employ a DCNN to discriminate between theropod and ornithischian dinosaur tracks based on a total of 1372 outline silhouettes. The DCNN consistently outperformed human experts on an independent test set. We also used the DCNN to classify tracks of a large tridactyl trackmaker from Lark Quarry, Australia, the identity of which has been subject to intense debate. The presented approach can only be considered a first step towards the wider application of machine learning in fossil track research, which is not limited to classification problems. Current limitations, such as the subjectivity and information loss inherent in interpretive outlines, may be overcome in the future by training neural networks on three-dimensional models directly, though this will require an increased uptake in digitization among workers in the field.
Read more of the Royal Society article here: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi ... 2022.0588

For a summary article concerning this same topic as found in Futurity read here: https://www.futurity.org/dinosaur-foot ... 2830182-2/
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Re: Natural History (13.8 billion years BC – 3.3 million BC)

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Earth Might Be Experiencing 7th Mass Extinction, Not 6th – “A True Decrease in the Abundance of Organisms”
NOVEMBER 25, 2022

550-million-year-old creatures’ message to the present.

Earth is currently in the midst of a mass extinction, losing thousands of species each year. New research suggests environmental changes caused the first such event in history, which occurred millions of years earlier than scientists previously realized.

“We’ve shown a true decrease in the abundance of organisms.” — Chenyi Tu

Most dinosaurs famously disappeared 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period. Prior to that, a majority of Earth’s creatures were snuffed out between the Permian and Triassic periods, roughly 252 million years ago.
https://scitechdaily.com/earth-might-be ... organisms/
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Re: Natural History (13.8 billion years BC – 3.3 million BC)

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Patagotitan: Colossal dinosaur heading for UK display

10 hours ago

A replica of what could have been the largest animal ever to walk on land is coming to London in the New Year.

A cast of the sauropod dinosaur known as Patagotitan will go on show at the Natural History Museum - assuming it fits within the gallery space.

Measuring some 35m (115ft) from nose to tail, the beast could have weighed up to 60 or 70 tonnes in life.

"We should be able to get it in but there won't be much wriggle room," said exhibition developer Sinéad Marron.

The replica skeleton is being loaned from Argentina's Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio (MEF), whose staff excavated the animal's giant bones in 2014.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63741208


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weatheriscool
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Re: Natural History (13.8 billion years BC – 3.3 million BC)

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Skull and partial skeleton found in Morocco helps link ancient whale species
https://phys.org/news/2022-11-skull-par ... -link.html
by Bob Yirka , Phys.org
Three researchers, one with the University of Michigan, the other two with the University of Casablanca, have found a skull and partial skeleton in Morocco that they suggest link together several species of ancient whales. In their paper published in the open access journal PLOS ONE, Philip Gingerich, Ayoub Amane and Samir Zouhri describe the fossils and how they tie together the evolution of land-based creatures that evolved into modern whales.

The fossils found by the researchers were dated to approximately 40 million years ago (during the Eocene) and were identified as a member of Basilosaurid, a family of ancient whales that were land-based but had developed multiple aquatic adaptions, such as flippers. Prior research has shown they lived around what is now Africa, North America and Europe.

Eventually (over the ensuing 5 million years) they evolved to become modern whales. But the researchers noted differences in the fossils that connect several types of whales that belonged to the species Antaecetus, such as Pachycetus paulsonii and Pachycetus wardii. The differences were great enough to earn the fossil its own genus, Antaecetus aithai. The main trait that differentiated it from the others was its comparatively small skull.

The researchers note that members of the species were known to have thick, dense bones that hint at musculature, but they also suggest that they were relatively slow swimmers and not agile in the water. It has been theorized that because they were still evolving from land animals to sea creatures, it is likely they had a large lung capacity.
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Re: Natural History (13.8 billion years BC – 3.3 million BC)

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525-million-year-old fossil defies textbook explanation for brain evolution
https://phys.org/news/2022-11-million-y ... ation.html
by University of Arizona
Fossils of a tiny sea creature that died more than half a billion years ago may compel a science textbook rewrite of how brains evolved.

A study published in Science—led by Nicholas Strausfeld, a Regents Professor in the University of Arizona Department of Neuroscience, and Frank Hirth, a reader of evolutionary neuroscience at King's College London—provides the first detailed description of Cardiodictyon catenulum, a wormlike animal preserved in rocks in China's southern Yunnan province. Measuring barely half an inch (less than 1.5 centimeters) long and initially discovered in 1984, the fossil had hidden a crucial secret until now: a delicately preserved nervous system, including a brain.
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Re: Natural History (13.8 billion years BC – 3.3 million BC)

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caltrek
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Re: Natural History (13.8 billion years BC – 3.3 million BC)

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67-million-year-old Fossil Upends Bird Evolutionary Tree
by Dyani Lewis
November 30, 2022

Introduction:
(Nature) A prehistoric toothed bird that lived 67 million years ago is turning the bird tree of life on its head. The bird — named Janavis finalidens — shares crucial features with its modern cousins such as chickens and ducks, which is forcing a rethink about bird evolution*.

A stone-encased fossil was plucked from a Belgian quarry two decades ago2. It was found in a geological layer that dates back to the Late Cretaceous period (100.5 million to 66 million years ago), just before the mass extinction event that wiped out all non-avian dinosaurs. At the time of the fossil’s discovery, it seemed to comprise just a handful of bones from the spine, wings, shoulders and legs.

Daniel Field, a palaeontologist at the University of Cambridge, UK, and his colleagues re-examined the bones using micro-computed tomography to better investigate the creature’s anatomy. From those scans, they were able to describe the specimen as a new species of ancient bird that shared a common ancestor with modern birds. When it lived, Janavis finalidens would have been similar in size to a grey heron. The study is published in Nature today.

The team also discovered that one of the bones, previously thought to be a shoulder bone, was actually from the skull — a bone called the pterygoid. “It is from a very interesting part of the skull, from the bony palate of the bird,” says Field. The bony palate has crucial features that researchers use to group birds, both living and extinct.

*Benito, A. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05445-y (2022)
Read more here: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04181-7
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Re: Natural History (13.8 billion years BC – 3.3 million BC)

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Mongolian fossil is first known species of streamlined non-avian theropod dinosaur to walk on two legs
https://phys.org/news/2022-12-mongolian ... ropod.html
by Bob Yirka , Phys.org
A team of researchers from Seoul National University, the University of Alberta and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences has identified the first known example of a streamlined, non-avian theropod dinosaur to walk on two legs. In their paper published in Communications Biology, the group describes where the fossil was found, its condition, and its features that were used to help identify it as a new dinosaur species.

The dinosaur was excavated at the Hermiin Tsav fossil formation in Mongolia back in 2008 as part of the Korean-Mongolian International Dinosaur Expedition. Since that time, it has been in storage with hundreds of other fossils awaiting study by experts.

In their study of the fossil, the researchers found it to be well-preserved and nearly complete—it had most of its two hindlimbs, one of its forelimbs, most of its skull and most of its spinal column. It also had a mouthful of teeth. The researchers noted that the skeleton was similar in shape to many modern water birds, sleek and trim, suggesting it lived on or near the water and survived by fishing offshore.

The researchers also noted that its ribs pointed toward its tail, another common feature of waterbirds. But it was not avian—there was no sign of wings. The researchers also noted that the overall shape of the skeleton suggested very strongly that it did not use its forelimbs for walking, likely giving it a penguin-like gait.
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